How To Increase Your Consciousness

(HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR WIMP)

We humans are free and powerful by nature. Practically all
"unfreedom" and powerlessness we suffer from, we have
learned. Some of us may find the idea of being naturally free
and powerful, frightening. There may be an overpowering psychological
"wimp" in our mind that blinds us to our freedom and
power. If so, the next step is to overcome that wimp.

Deep within the psyche of practically every human there resides
a pernicious wimp. Your wimp is like gravity. It is invisible.
It is powerful. It pervades your life. It pulls you down. It affects
your every thought, your every action... It usurps your power.

The wimp within you makes it possible for people to manipulate
you. The reason politicians, lawyers, bureaucrats, IRS agents (tax/theft collectors), etc., get away so easily with their fraudulent and criminal activities is that practically all their victims are afflicted
with virulent wimps that inhabit the core of their psyches. In
general it is easy to dupe wimps and separate them from their
consciousness and their money.

Once you begin to understand your own personal wimp and recognize
when it exerts its influence over you, you can begin to overcome
it. You do it little by little. An understanding of the evolution
of human consciousness will help you identify the nature of your
personal wimp. Consider the bicameral model of the mind - table
below:

THE BICAMERAL MODEL OF THE MIND:

1. Pre-conscious;
Bicameral stage 1:

Automatic visions and voices tell you what to do.
You automatically obey the "voices of authority."
You think and speak like a slave.
Obedience is paramount.

2. Proto-conscious;
Bicameral stage 2:

Automatic feelings and thoughts tell you what to do.
You behave like:
(a) A true believer (sometimes a fanatic fighter for a "great cause"); or
(b) A helpless wimp (languishing in apathy, sometimes complaining); or
(c) A self-righteous preacher (making self "right" and others
"wrong"); or
(d) A macho rebel (compulsively fighting "the system," "the
IRS," "the government").
Being "right" is paramount.

3. Conscious;
Conscious stage:

You have largely mastered your feelings and emotions.
You have the ability to critically examine every concept, every thought, every action.
You strive to increase your competence in every aspect of your life.
You carefully observe the results you produce, using that as feedback to improve your concepts, thoughts, communications, and actions.
You live free and creatively - you are a Freeperson.
Producing results is paramount.

According to Dr. Julian Jaynes (The Origin of Consciousness
in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind), up to about 3,000
years ago humans were not conscious as we know consciousness today.
Their minds worked like this: Situations triggered mental voices
and/or visions that were automatically generated in the right
brain, from where they were communicated via the anterior commissure
to the left brain, where the visions were "seen" and
the voices "heard." The mental voices and visions "told"
people what to do. Today, some people still manifest this form
of mentation - sometimes called schizophrenia. I call this stage
in the evolution of consciousness, bicameral stage one - the pre-conscious human. In this stage obedience is paramount.

Many people are aware of an automatic, apparently uncontrollable
"stream of thoughts" going on in their heads. Sometimes
a situation will trigger an automatic thought like "she doesn't
love me," followed by automatic feelings and emotions - apparently
not under control. When I watch and listen to a TV talk show like
"Good Morning America" or "Morton Downey, Jr.,"
it seems to me that most of the participants, including the host
and the specially invited speakers, merely regurgitate their automatic
thoughts - their emphasis being on trying to prove self "right"
and others "wrong." I call this bicameral stage two
- the proto-conscious human. In this stage being "right"
is paramount.

A rapidly growing number of people have started questioning
and critically examining concepts, beliefs, and behaviors, held
sacred by their elders and most of their contemporaries. These
people want to produce better results in their lives: their health,
their relationships, their careers. In any area where they think
their results are below expectations they seek to improve their
knowledge, their skills, their competence. They also realize that
some of their difficulties stem from destructive thoughts and
behavior patterns acquired or developed during childhood. Their
emphasis is on producing results. I call this the conscious stage.

By conscious I mean critically aware, particularly critically
self-aware. The proto-conscious person in bicameral stage
two operates "on automatic" most of the time - like
driving a car without thinking, or regurgitating automatic thoughts,
or reacting emotionally like a puppet, or compulsively making
self "right" and others "wrong" without critical
awareness of the results being produced.

The critically conscious are conscious of their consciousness.
They critically monitor what they think, say, and do in order
to produce the results they want. They develop the thinking
skill of self-observation.

Many people are in transition from bicameral stage 2 to the
conscious stage. Some are still in transition from bicameral stage
1 to bicameral stage 2. Some show signs of all three stages.

Where does your wimp fit into all this? If you believe in total
obedience to something outside yourself (an external "authority"),
your wimp may have total control over your life. If you're a bicameral
stage two proto-conscious human, your wimp will probably make
you a true believer, a somewhat helpless apathetic, or a compulsive
rebel. These three types compare to three of the life-orientations
identified by Dr. Eric Byrne in Transactional Analysis: "I'm
not OK - you're OK" (true believer); "I'm not OK - you're
not OK" (helpless apathetic); and "I'm OK - you're not
OK" (compulsive rebel). As you evolve into the conscious
stage you move towards "I'm OK - you're OK."

The way you recognize your wimp is to identify any area of
your life where the results you produce don't meet your expectations.
If you are inclined to lose your cool in certain situations, or
in the presence of certain kinds of people, you have another pointer
to your wimp. If you consistently blame things or people outside
yourself for your lack of success or your lot in life, you have
another indication that your wimp is at work. If you're involved
in any activity where it is claimed that "X is the only truth,
philosophy, politics, etc.," your wimp is of the true believer
kind. Similarly, your wimp may be the helpless apathetic or compulsive
rebel type. If there are things you want to do but somehow you
don't think you can do them, or you just never get around to doing
them, that is another pointer to your wimp. If you're stuck in
some destructive habit - you want to drop it but don't seem able
to - that is your wimp at work. If you often get victimized -
for example, provoke violence or coercion against yourself - that
is a definite wimp pointer.

If you believe you can't escape the clutches of the Internal
Revenue Stealers (IRS), then your wimp has you - there are
probably at least ten million people in the USA who are largely
free from IRS taxes and the government. You can join them whenever
you want to.

The steps for overcoming your wimp:

Recognize that there is a wimp within you.

Identify the areas in your life where the wimp seems to
get the upper hand - areas where your results are below expectation.

Ask, "What knowledge, skills, or methods (competence)
do I need to improve in that area?"

Replace the incompetence with competence. For many this
is a life-long process. We simply stick to it year after year.

Read and apply Mind Traps: Change Your Mind Change Your
Life by Tom Rusk. Rusk identifies self-doubt as the root of
all evil:

"The effects of self-doubt go far deeper than an inability
to accept one's talents and attributes. Self-doubt is a mental
abscess which can penetrate to the very essence of your being.
Like a slow-growing but highly adaptable fungus, self-doubt is
a creeping rot which eats away at your sense of worth. It can
be so insidious you may be unaware of its damaging effect on your
life. And self-doubt is extremely durable; it is resistant to
all but the most sophisticated and determined efforts at eradicating
it.

Introduced by painful experiences in childhood, self-doubt
weaves itself into the fabric of your identity. There, disguised
as the truth, utilizing the self-defeating attitudes (Mind Traps)
it generates, self-doubt asserts its poisonous influence over
every aspect of life, from work to relationships. Self-doubts
and Mind Traps are hardy enough to withstand overwhelming conflicting
evidence. They are even resistant to good common sense - no matter
how much some people may love and respect you, you may still doubt
yourself. And you may find yourself sabotaging your own welfare."

Read and apply Learned Optimism by Martin E.P. Seligman. The wimp is a pessimist. Optimism is a methodology or technology that can be learned. Doing so will eventually defeat the wimp.

Consider again the central theme of this report:
"To feel that we are worthwhile individuals, to know that
we exist, we have to express our power - feel that we are in control.
This imperative to express our power and experience control is
central to human behavior. Every human does something to express
his or her power in the world. This power can be expressed creatively
or destructively.

Humans first attempt to express their power creatively. If
such attempts fail repeatedly, they experience themselves as powerless.
They may feel helpless and hopeless, and become depressed. What
they experience is that they cannot make a positive difference
in their own lives or in the world. A cognitive breakdown occurs
between their actions and the results they produce. Mentally and
intellectually they cease to understand the connections between
their behavior and the consequences of their behavior. Then they
express their power destructively.

This phenomenon is at the root of practically all individual
and societal problems.

Understanding this phenomenon and its implications leads to
the solution of practically all individual and societal problems."

Your wimp can be described as that part of you that expresses
power destructively - those parts of your personality where the
cognitive connections between actions and consequences have broken
down.

An important distinction here: We think, we "emote,"
and we act. Of the three the easiest to change - in some cases
- is action.

The wimp is afraid. It is a coward. Unfounded fear is a breakdown
of the cognitive connection between action and consequence. We
fear taking a certain action because we have a weird idea (cognitive
connection) of what the consequences might be. The ultimate way
to beat the wimp is to do the things we are most afraid of - those
things where the fear is unfounded - like public speaking, door-to-door
selling, asking a stranger for directions, etc.

Observe the consequences of these actions and formulate new
cognitive connections. Discover your freedom and power.

MORE ON CONSCIOUSNESSYou may think that when people walk around with open eyes, they're conscious. You may think in terms of two states: sleep and consciousness. You may think that when you walk around with your eyes open, or watch TV, you're conscious. It's very easy for us to deceive ourselves! Most people are pretty unconscious during their supposedly "awake" hours.

I see consciousness as a continuum, rather than as a "black/white
something" that is either completely absent or completely
present. I say there are many degrees of consciousness. I also
regard "continuum thinking" as a thinking skill.

You could regard the extent of your consciousness as the number of things which you are conscious of; for example, suppose you identify one hundred things about yourself and your environment - at any particular time you may only be conscious of two to five of these things. Breathing is an example of something which your body usually does unconsciously or automatically - until you deliberately control your lungs, such as by taking several deep breaths, do you become conscious of your breathing; though the process reverts to an unconscious state shortly thereafterwards, replaced by whatever else you later began thinking about, or focused your attention on. Therefore, in order to increase your consciousness in this respect, you need to increase the number of things which you can simultaneously maintain consciousness of.

A key realization is that consciousness is intentional. It's not something that just happens or something we have automatically. For there to be consciousness, we have to direct our consciousness. We have to will consciousness. Consciousness is active.

In his book On Disobedience and Other Essays, psychologist Erich
Fromm indicates why disobedience is the first step toward developing
real consciousness. When you obey others, you're like a puppet sleepwalker
on a string. By thinking for yourself and making your own decisions you develop consciousness.

Another important way to develop consciousness is to question
everything. Don't take anything for granted. Whatever you accept blindly
from others, tends to make you a stimulus-response robot. Particularly question all your past knowledge.

When we are conscious, we are reflectively conscious
on a continual basis. "Reflective" is the key word - it implies observing
how you think and act - awareness of your consciousness, if you like.
Some additional aspects of consciousness include your
perception of the process whereby you trigger your
emotions; an awareness of your habits as habits; and the
ability to distinguish between (a) reality, (b) your perception of reality, and (c) your reaction/response to your perception of reality.

In addition to perception there are four important words:
"Apperception" is the perception of what goes
on in your mind, observing your own thoughts (introspection).

"Proprioception" is the perception of what goes
on in your body, observing your feelings, sensations, and emotions.

"Subception" is a term used by Michael Polany
to describe the perception at the level of what he calls "tacit
knowledge." Much of the knowledge we apply to ride a bicycle
is tacit or unexpressed. We find it difficult to articulate this
knowledge. Subception is perception at this level.

"Projectoception" is a term I invented to describe
the "perception" of what's really not there. Consider
the so-called "crab nebula." From a certain vantage
point, a "group of stars" seem to have the shape of
a crab. So we collectively call them "the crab." Some
of these stars are much closer to earth than others. If we were
looking at these stars from a very different place in the universe,
we wouldn't see them as being "grouped together." The
supposed "perception" of "the crab" really
constitutes the addition or projection of something to
the information actually being received. A great leap in intelligence
occurs when we develop the ability to recognize our own projectoception.
Much of human stupidity is due to the unrecognized and unwarranted
addition or projection of "collectivities" and ascribing
magical powers to these "collectivties." An example
of such a "collectivity" is "government."

A simpler example of such addition or projection occurs in the
case of a "policeman." An ordinary man, when clothed
in a "uniform," is projected as having "special qualities."
Something added to the perception changes "ordinary man"
into "policeman."

Addition or projection is also involved when the noises and scribbles
of coercive political agents are regarded as "the law" (so-called).
Projectoception occurs when you perceive more than there really
is to be perceived. (Much of culture consists of agreed upon projectoception.
Optimum survival often requires that we pretend to share the common
projectoceptions of our fellows.)

When we are in control, as opposed to being stimulus-response machines,
we use our cognitive intermediary ability to be in control. In a stimulus-response orientation people react to input from the environment automatically and produce output without the use of their cognitive systems (consciousness).
An example of this is Ted. When Ted's girlfriend told him she didn't want
to go out, he automatically (unconsciously) got upset because he thought
she was mad at him. Ted never bothered to use his cognitive ability (consciousness) to either realize that there are legitimate reasons why she does not want to go, or to control his own emotional reaction.

Another example is Thom. When Thom's girlfriend tells him she does not
want to go out he uses his cognitive ability (consciousness) to consider
alternative possibilities as to why she does not what to go out, such as
the fact that she had a long day and is tired. He then controls his emotions
and consciously creates an appropriate response, rather than an automatic
unconscious emotional reaction.

In his superb book The Philosophy of As If, Hans Vaihinger explained the
principle of the preponderance of means over ends. It seems to be a
human tendency to forget the end and to get lost in the means. The means
tend to become more important than the end. So people can devote much of
their lives (even sacrifice their lives) to futile means with little or no
prospect of achieving any worthwhile end. To escape this trap - the tendency towards unconsciousness? - you need to constantly focus on producing the (end) results you desire, whilst keeping whatever you need to do to achieve those results (the means) as a subordinate function.

SELF-OBSERVATIONThe famous mystic Gurdjieff claimed that what we generally
regard as the awake state is in fact a kind of "sleepwalking."
I call this bicameral stage two, in which people operate "on
automatic" without really observing themselves. Gurdjieff
and his disciple Ouspensky were well known as teachers of self-observation.
Self-observation is a thinking skill that enables you to become
critically aware of what you think, say, and do - and the consequences
you create.

Many people most of the time are not critically aware of their
thoughts, communications, and actions. For many, critical self-observation
is a difficult skill to learn. Many use reason to rationalize
their actions after the fact - to make themselves "right."
Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and their followers have written several
books on the lifetime work of becoming critically self-aware.

HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN ITS INFANCYPhilosopher and psychologist Nietzsche indicated that human
consciousness is in its infancy. Suppose the universe is four
billion years old, humans have existed for about 200,000 to 300,000
years, and have been conscious for maybe 3,000 to 5,000 years. In evolutionary
terms, our consciousness is in its infancy. We are at the level
of a baby just beginning to learn to crawl.

Consider that all the problems in the world - unhappiness, crime,
drug abuse, suicide, rape, terrorism, coercive government, war, pollution,
poverty, famine, child abuse, depression, unemployment, inflation,
homelessness, unhealth, etc. - are a consequence of the fact that
human thinking skills are still at a very primitive infancy level.

What if we are like primitive, backward, barbaric infants who
are yet to learn to crawl - but we deceive ourselves into believing
that we are the finest olympic athletes?